A close-up of the control panel. All of the screws really
don't get in the way. Much. It's hard to read, but the hand-written
labels say "Left, Right, Shield, Thrust, Fire".

Here's a view from the edge. You can see that these really
are chair glides. They have a brass post sticking out of them,
which we put through a hole in a strip of brass, and soldered
in place from the other side of the panel.

Here's a shot of the interior. Note the duct-tape hinge and
cardboard bottom. Nothing but the best!

A shot of the back. Originally, we'd put together an all-custom
wiring harness using a 9-pin connector from Radio Shack, and
a bunch of single terminals that had to be plugged in one at
a time. Then we wised up and just used a wiring harness from
a busted 2600 joystick.

Here's the second one we built. It works almost as well. Except
for one little problem...

We couldn't find the same chair glides! These are the
right size...

But they're dome-shaped on top! Still, they work just as well.
They feel kinda weird though.

This is a close-up of how the switches work. The horizontal
brass piece is common (ground), the two vertical pieces are (in
this picture) right and left. The screws hold the vertical pieces
flat to the underside of the top panel, so when you push a button
down and release it, it springs back up. The horizontal (common)
piece has a couple extra nuts on the other side that hold it
away from the panel. When you push down on a button, contact
is made and the switch is closed. When you let go, it springs
back up and contact is broken. You can't get any simpler than
that.